Intel Corporation said its fourth quarter net income fell 27% from the previous year, as personal computer sales continued to weaken.
Net income was $2.47 billion for the October to December period. That was down from $3.36 billion a year ago.
The company, the world's largest chipmaker, employs over 4,500 people in Ireland, most of which work at its plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare.
Intel still beat earnings expectations for the quarter by 3 cents per share relative to the average of analysts.
That was due to slightly higher than expected prices for its chips and lower than expected costs for starting up new production lines.
Revenue during the wuarter fell 3% to $13.5 billion, matching analyst expectations.
Intel is facing a challenge by a shift in consumer spending from PCs - most of which use Intel chips - to smartphones and tablets, which do not.
Research firm Gartner said this week that global PC shipments fell 4.9% in the fourth quarter from a year ago. Households are letting tablets replace their secondary PCs, it said.
Intel chief financial officer Stacy Smith admitted that tablets are affecting sales of PC chips, which fell 3% in the quarter. Intel is trying hard to get its chips into smartphones and tablets.
Chief executive Paul Otellini touted the company's latest "Atom" processors, which are used in ten tablet models, he said, and can yield the same or better battery life as the competition.
Intel had warned that the fourth quarter would be lacklustre, and that the usual holiday bounce in PC shipments would be cut in half, even though Microsoft launched its new operating system, Windows 8, in the quarter.
The California based company expects about $12.7 billion in first-quarter revenue, below the analyst forecast of $12.9 billion but in line with usual seasonal variations. For the full year, Intel is forecasting a revenue percentage increase in the low single digits, in line with Wall Street's 2% expectation.
For the full year, Intel said it earned $11 billion on $53.3 billion in revenue. Both figures were down slightly from the year before, when it earned $12.9 billion on $54 billion in revenue.
